The present invention relates to methods of cleaning fluids and removing water from hydrophobic liquid and water emulsions.
While the invention is described in terms of reclamation of oils it will be understood that the method and apparatus provided herein is equally satisfactory for the reclamation of other hydrophobic liquids from oil emulsions to permit reuse of the liquid.
Heretofore, the majority of the methods utilized in the reclamation of oil have required extensive handling procedures, preparation procedures, and in some instances complex operating procedures using expensive equipment. Such prior art procedures have been labor intensive, and have generated excessive amounts of by-product. The by-products resulting from the prior art procedures have generally been difficult to dispose of because of ecological considerations and environmental regulations and therefore added to the processing expense.
While some prior art methods are known utilizing procedures where emulsions are passed through media as a mode of reclamation such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,937,977 and 4,406,791, the prior art methods have been limited in the types of fluids that can be processed, generally generate large amounts of unconcentrated waste solids, and have not taught the procedures provided by the present invention where the media is compressed then the liquid passed through. Further such procedures have not suggested processing emulsions at temperatures of the oil where accelerated stratification occurs.
Other well known prior art methods of removing water from emulsions with hydrophobic oils include absorption on solid materials in fixed and fluidized beds, distillation processes, evaporation processes as shown also in U.S. Pat. No. 2,937,977, centrifugation as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,816 and clarification operations.
In some instances even decanting procedures as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,528 are used where in some applications addition of acid is used to attempt to break emulsions so the water can be separated from the oil by decantation. The use of acids further increases the processing cost and adds other materials which require additional procedures and expense to dispose of the acid waste.
In general, the aforenoted methods are labor intensive, and require, in some instances expensive equipment. In general they also require the use of significant energy and are not entirely satisfactory.
No prior art method or arrangement is known which falls within the scope of the present invention wherein a synergistic effect is established between the characteristics of the material to be reclaimed, the temperature of the emulsion during reclamation, the concentration of water in the material to be reclaimed and the compressive characteristics of the media utilized in the reclamation.